Jitters in Asian chip stocks

Asian technology stocks tumbled last Friday, tracking a sharp sell-off on Wall Street that sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite into correction territory as renewed concerns over artificial intelligence spending rattled investor sentiment. South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix plunged 10.44pc, while Samsung Electronics shed 6.35pc. LG Innotek and LG Display fell 7.02pc and 4.45pc, respectively, according to a CNBC report. The rout came as investors worried that Democrats’ sweeping victory in the US midterm elections could lead to tighter restrictions on data-centre development, potentially slowing demand for AI chips and related infrastructure. In Japan, semiconductor-related stocks also fell, with chip-testing equipment maker Advantest plunging 4.99pc, while Tokyo Electron slid over 5pc. Technology investment giant SoftBank Group tumbled 10.83pc. Shares of memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings fell 8.72pc, while Renesas Electronics declined 5.74pc. In Taiwan, semiconductor stocks also came under heavy selling pressure, with contract chipmaker TSMC sliding 4.69pc. China was also caught in the regional sell-off, with the tech-heavy STAR Market and the ChiNext Artificial Intelligence Index, both tumbling more than 4pc. The declines followed a brutal session on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq Composite sank 5.5pc, amid mounting concerns over the sustainability of the AI investment boom and returns on massive data-centre spending.

Russia seizes operations of Japanese cigarette giant

Russian President Vladimir Putin placed Japan Tobacco International’s (JTI) operations under state control, ordering their transfer by decree to a state-linked holding company AO Promyshlennye aktivy. The order covers JTI’s factories in St Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, the Lipetsk region and the Leningrad region, reports Euronews. The company employs around 4,000 people in Russia and holds roughly 40pc of the Russian cigarette market, making it the country’s largest manufacturer. Its Russian product range includes the international brands Winston, Glamour, Camel, LD and Sobranie, and the domestic labels Pyotr I, Russky Stil and Donskoi Tabak. The JTI, whose headquarters are in Geneva, entered the Russian market in 1999 and acquired local producer Donskoi Tabak in 2018. JT Group has invested $4.6bn in its Russian operations over more than 20 years, according to a company profile updated in November 2025. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the company did not leave the country but suspended new investment in Russian production and marketing. The seizure follows Russia’s arrest last month of Yuki Imai, a journalist with the Japanese newspaper Hokkaido Shimbun, on espionage charges. The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Tokyo of systematically using journalists to gather intelligence inside the country. Japan has rejected the accusation. Japan, which has a long-standing dispute with Russia over the Chishima Islands in the Pacific Ocean, has also joined some Western sanctions over the ongoing all-out war in Ukraine.

Fast money £36.55 million

RM Sotheby’s London sale at the Peninsula Hotel raised £36,550,950, which the auction house calls the highest-grossing collector car sale ever held in the UK. A Ferrari Daytona SP3 led at just over £8 million, while a 1991 Honda NSX, once owned by Ayrton Senna, went for £871,250. Overall, 87.5pc of lots sold, PA Media reports.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, November 9th, 2026